ClassMate Robot represents an extraordinary and virtuous process leading to a more inclusive and engaging school system.

It can interact with pupils in a classroom, helping teachers deliver the classes. Pupils can treat it as one of them, asking it questions on any subject. Its facial recognition capabilities also make it a valuable assistant for the school’s admins, always keeping track of who’s in class. It can help those students who can’t come to school by recording lessons and then playing them back to them in some digital form, or by “impersonating” the absent student, connected from home. ClassMate Robot can act as the digital interface through which different schools can connect and interact in real-time.

The idea that this robot would be joining normal classrooms, albeit special called for a humanoid appearance. Interacting with teachers and fellow pupils is easier and more engaging when one looks at least remotely like a human being. The project involved the integration of three components: a social robot – specially designed; social functionalization software and a cloud platform to support, animate over time and integrate all process actors.

The design had to strike the right balance between realism and imagination, objectivity and emotions. Designers were provided with videos showing the robot in motion, to have a precise idea of the moves it needed to perform and a first impression of its general demeanor. They started by “putting flesh” around the joints, making sure the robot could move easily and efficiently, then adding a face, in the monitor area.

The face of the robot, like in human beings, is the most important part of one’s body; the idea was not to make it morphologically realistic, but to interpret it as an “icon” of a human face, engaging, likable and cute.

From there, the rest of the body revealed itself naturally. Proportions were inspired by cub-like limbs and torso, as in cartoons, contributing to the reassuring sense of cuteness and lovability, with just that hint of mischievous naughtiness to make it “cool” for its future classmates.

This constituted the starting point for the development of the software and mechanical functionalities of ClassMate. It was a truly multidisciplinary exercise, with the participation of mechanical, electronic and software engineers, social scientists, designers, psychologists and education specialists. The project validated the use of the robot in some real classroom contexts, and even in schools situated in particularly disadvantaged communities.

Category:RoboticsYear:2023Designers:Studio Volpi Design Team, Studio Volpi s.r.l., Carnago (VA), ItalyManufacturer:Protom S.p.A., Napoli (NA), Italy